The round table discussion participants pointed out that Russian Railways came up with an action plan to improve their passenger service in 2017-2019, with over RUR 175m allocated for the purpose.

‘The demand for rail commutes has been rising steadily; according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center’s recent findings, passengers are generally satisfied with the quality of commuter service, with customer satisfaction index up from 72% to 76% in the course of one year. Interestingly, the index stands at as much as 83% at routes where only Lastochka trains get used and drops down to 59% at routes where no Lastochka trains are used at all,’ the Center says.

Alexander Saltayev, whose company Ural Locomotives makes the high-speed Lastochka trains for Russian Railways, presented the plant’s plans to develop new high-speed train types for the promising routes across the country.